Hi new guys! *glomps the newbies* Rule number one of doing class research: Unless they've got math that doesn't suck tied to them, ignore the flying doom tomatoes. That said: Ops are capable healers for hardmode flashpoints, group stuff, whatever. A smart Op can pretty much solo god if she knows how to cycle her cooldowns and has her companions properly dressed. That whole stealth/vanish/self complete cure/bubble thing helps with getting waaaay to the back of heroic4s and killing whatever your update mob is. (Not that I would ever dream of bypassing content. >.>) Op DPS is workable. Without a parser it's really hard for me to say where we stand relative to other classes. From an aggro-management perspective, it's pretty much always either our lethality Op or our sniper ganking aggro off our Juggies. (Well, or the Powertech wannabe dps guys that still taunt like idiots when they're not the meatshield.) When I was running conceal I didn't seem to turn mobs nearly as much as the other DPS agents in my guild, but I've been playing Medicine pretty much since the get-go, so... I'm sure my rotations were fail. My snipers have their complaints, but they're also pulling their weight. I'd love to comment more, but I've yet to run a sniper up. It's on the list. Current state of the game has Sorcs pulling ahead of basically everyone else. In six months? Who knows. In vanilla WoW, druids were lolworthy, and a year later they were the kings of the game. I remember barely being able to heal a dungeon crawl on my inquisitor in EQ2, then turning into the preferred healer almost overnight three expansions later. If an Agent is what you want to play (and I seriously can't blame you, the class is amazing, has a f'awesome storyline, and all the mojo winningness of James Bond and Charlie Sheen's lovechild) then play an Agent. Decide if you want to be melee or ranged and go from there. Make a point of becoming as good at whatever you settle on as possible, find a good guild, and be awesome at them.

My ending pretty much fit Roxina to a T. Anyway, for my particular character, the ending of act 3 was phenomenal. She gets to look after "her people" the way she sees best. I just hope that I get to keep playing her as a super ninja space Bond pew pew lazorz boss, like I have been. Also, +1 for wondering why we never get to see our Voss spouses or that random guy on Balmorra (who I totally thought would end up my second companion) again. I've gone back to both Voss and Balmorra for booty calls and gotten nothing. Girl needs a little more than forearm-rubbing action now and again, know what I mean?

Compared to the other 31s, recuperative nanotech makes me cry. It has its uses, but I've got to plan waaaaaay in advance if I'm planning on using it. That said, I kind of like it for keeping my mdps covered in sticky green goo. But... I haven't gotten my guild into ops at all yet, let alone hard or nightmare modes. But yes. /signed on making this heal more globally useful. It's our flippin' 31. (Also, instead of the talent for shield probe increasing incoming healing while active, make it a two pointer where the first point reduces the cooldown and the second makes it usable on a targeted ally.)

I was a hardcore crit/alacrity stacker until I actually sat down and looked at what I was gaining point for point from haste, and how it was junk-punching my energy management. I was blowing through energy way faster than the slightly more frequent ticks on med scan were allowing me to recover, and I wasn't really gaining the omg need heal bomb now bonus I wanted. Got an alacrity relic from the pvp vendor, swapped almost all of my alacrity mods and augs out for surge, and noticed a major increase to my effectiveness in groups. I've decided if I'm needing to spike my cast speed more frequently than my relic's up, either I'm slacking on my hots or the group's standing in fire. (Stupid stupid fire bombs.)

Operatives are doable as healers. We're doable as PvE mdps. It's a class without much margin or error, and not as much utility or recovery as I would like, but it's fun. Even with the QQ on the forums about Op viability, I've still got sorcs and marauders on my roster threatening to reroll at me. MMO trends run like this. The community hates you, then they shun you, and...yeah. It makes pugging rough, but that's what guilds are for. Find a good one, make some friends, or whatever. If an Operative is what you enjoy playing, you'll stand a better chance of pushing yourself to be one of the exceptional players that knows how to make the class shine. Seriously though, I've had to whine, kick, scream, and plead with people to keep them on their sorcs, marauders, and mercs. Seems like all of my tanks want to be juggies and my mdps and healers want to be ops. It's enough to make a guild leader wanna cry. (So I did. It got at least one of my marauders to cave in. ^_^)

I absolutely adore Vector. Like, I think I'm actually in love with him myself. >.> And I am totally into all of the story stuff that's been going on since I started getting my faction up with Lokin. <3 how the storyline ties in with Vector's.

Damage type is determined by the attack, not the weapon, if I'm understanding correctly. So yeah, all things being equal, two moddables are pretty much the same item.

The way I'm understanding it... Skills are weapon damage+x. Rifle shots (snipe, overload) check against your blaster rifle, while stabs (backstab, shiv) check against your vibroknife. Beyond that, I think rifle shot damage checks against your aim, while stabs and bombs check agaisnt your cunning, since the rifle skills are classed range and bombs/stabs are classed as tech (as are our heals). Even as a med-specced op, I like to keep my vibroknife up to date and look for a good range on the damage. Most of my pew comes from stabs (and explosive probe toe bombing), so it seems like a good investment to me. On an unrelated note, I really wish operatives got access to a "freebie" vibroknife version of rifle burst. Just a quick slash or something for filler damage between backstabs. Rifle in melee is awkward looking to me.

I would think that if you're talenting diagnostic scan, you'd eventually want enough crit to push your post-talented rate on that ability up so you're getting at least 1-2 energy procs per cast? A full 31-pt medic spec is going to have to pass up the improvement to stim boost, so I'm expecting at least that we'll want some supplementary energy recovery options for during focus healing fights? From that, if you're gearing largely crit with DS in mind, surge is going to be important to get those criticals as fat as possible. I'm sure we'll have a "power to this level, then" guideline at some point.

Toe-bombing the explosive 'nade from cover is fun, and if you're fast on your button mashing you can wedge it in between gcds. If you're splitting with sleep dart, turn Kaliyo's aoes off, or she will totally mess up all of your careful setup. (The same goes for slice droid.) Curer, cure thyself! You don't notice how much damage random detrimentals are causing until you start curing them and your healing/stimming need goes way down. We get cloak of shadows, our ally cure, and our mezbreaker. Use them! Diagnostic scan is your friend, if you're having to focus heals. Think of it as your healy autoattack. It's free, and if you've talented it you can gain energy back. Where else would you put those four points? Damage reduction? Flashbang doubles as an interrupt in a pinch. Heal-spammy mobs are very spammy, so this can save you a chunk of time while you're grinding.

My main complaint, from an RP perspective, is that my armor screams HI I'M IMPERIAL INTELLIGENCE! I'm a cipher agent. I spend half my time under deep cover, finding new and interesting ways to make people do what I want them to without them realizing they didn't come up with the idea themselves. I had a moddable armored breastplate from... I want to say Dromund Kaas? Wish I'd hung onto it. My hooligan's jacket from Balmorra is nice and all, but I miss that "nope, totally not here to ruin your life" look. I'm sorely tempted to go back and farm BT for the trench coat, now that I'm higher, if only for use until I get some of the higher-end moddables. Given the nature of IA work, I'm glad most of the armor is nondescript. Also? So totally /signed on needing a tuxedo or Bond girl orange set.